China’s move to regulate Internet payments sparks concern

Thursday, August 6, 2015

The draft rules issued late on Friday by China’s central bank place curbs on online payment services — limiting fund transfers, capping the size of daily transactions and increasing the requirements users must meet to prove their identities.

The rules could hamper the growth of payment services like those operated by e-commerce giant Alibaba’s financial affiliate, and social-networking company Tencent Holdings, analysts said. Also potentially affected are most of the 2100-plus platforms in China that facilitate peer-to-peer lending.

Chinese regulators have said the proposed rules are the latest in a broad effort aimed at building up much-needed safeguards against fraud and money laundering.